When Western Michigan University decided to use building information modeling software to create 3-D models of its existing buildings, the school didn’t know it would provide a useful tool for the Secret Service.

For President Obama’s Kalamazoo Central High School graduation speech in June, WMU “utilized one of the biggest assets of BIM, which is visualization,” said Pete Strazdas, associate vice president of facilities management.

The Secret Service “was blown away” by everything BIM could tell them before they even arrived in Kalamazoo, including the exact paths Obama would walk during his visit.

But WMU’s “Bronco BIM” project will provide many benefits for the school for years to come, said Mike Hodgkinson, building commissioning administrator in the facilities management-engineering division.

“The president’s visit was just a really good example really early in the game,” he said. “I think there’s going to be hundreds that come up.”

A handful of WMU students have been working on the Bronco BIM project, which the facilities management department oversees, during the past year. They started with the easier buildings on campus, Hodgkinson said, and are a little more than halfway through WMU’s 8 million square feet of facilities. But they now have around 100 of the 141 buildings modeled at BIM level 200. On a scale of 100 to 500, level 500 is the most detailed.

Strazdas and Hodgkinson believe “BIM for existing buildings” is so beneficial for large-facility owners that they both spoke at facility management conferences in recent weeks.
BIM is almost exclusively used for new construction projects, but WMU didn’t want to learn BIM on the job.

“What we really wanted to do was gain some first-hand knowledge of what was going on and become familiar so as we did go into a full BIM project with new building construction, a multi-million dollar project, we would have some background,” Hodgkinson said.

The project also provides a learning experience for the students that will put them well ahead of most people in the industry today, Strazdas said.

Strazdas

“It’s a reasonable cost for us to get them involved, (and it’s a) learning opportunity for them,” Strazdas said. “It was such a win-win-win with no obstacles or roadblocks to utilize the existing building method of learning BIM, using BIM.”

WMU also is using the BIM project to collect vast amounts of information.

Today’s construction industry has created buildings much more sophisticated than those of years past, Strazdas said. Using BIM for existing buildings allows the school to organize all the data that it needs to manage those buildings into an easy-to-use system instead of hundreds of spreadsheets or thousands of filing cabinets.

“How will you find that piece of information you’re looking for out of a million pieces of information?” Strazdas said. “We believe that the best way to do that is bring up a graphic, bring up a building, and there’s data attached to the building.”

WMU eventually wants to integrate BIM and the attached information into all its systems, including security, crisis response and existing GIS infrastructure software.

“We think this is laying the foundation to eventually help all departments,” Hodgkinson said.

And although the BIM models are only level 200, more information can be added to that existing “palette” later, Hodgkinson said.

“You really have to start with that raw structure, and then you can add layer upon layer of information afterward,” he said. “That’s the power of BIM.”

One of the main ways WMU will add information to its models is through renovation projects. WMU expects its architects and engineers to work on future renovations in BIM and update the school’s existing models.

“Quite frankly, there’s more remodeling on this campus than there is new construction,” Strazdas said, noting the school typically has 100 to 200 small to medium-sized renovations a year.

Another area that Strazdas believes BIM will help his department is in energy management, which WMU has been focusing on for nearly 20 years. More detail has been added to the BIM models’ exterior walls, bringing those elements to level 300, Strazdas said. This will help WMU identify areas of the building envelope to invest energy-saving efforts.

“Western Michigan, they can see millions of dollars in lifecycle management cost savings over time by doing this,” said Steve Downard, an account manager at Kal-Blue. The Autodesk reseller, with offices in Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, is assisting WMU in the BIM project.

Downard agrees that BIM for existing buildings is most beneficial for long-term, large-facility owners. Someone who owns just one building would not receive as much return on investment and might sell the building before any benefits are realized.

Higher education institutions have more resources, such as students, to take on a BIM for existing buildings project, Downard said. Ferris State University and Central Michigan University are both interested in following WMU’s example, and Kal-Blue is talking to Bronson Healthcare about it, as well.

“Bronson has a goal to do it, but they’re not ready to do it yet,” Downard said. “That is one of our focuses, large owners, to try to push the process down.”

Only about 20 to 30 percent of West Michigan architecture, construction and engineering companies have adopted BIM, Downard said. Those that did were trying to set themselves apart from their competitors. But they have come to realize how much easier the process is.

He hopes large owners requiring BIM on their projects will encourage companies to adopt the process.

“Obviously, in a bad economy, it’s never a good time to change, but also in a bad economy, it’s a good time to change,” Downard said, “because you have time to learn it, but you may not have money to learn it.

“So our goal is to work with the large owners to get them to say, ‘Hey, it’s time for you to move on because we want this information in a building.’”